Unverified Voracity Brainwashes Child

Bo with children. Bo passed away nine years ago today. Spurred by a classic old-timey photo posted by Steve Lorenz, a couple of readers passed along adorable pictures of Bo not yelling at them about their pad level despite his constant desire to do so:

Jourdan Lewis, CB, Michigan: +21.7

Key stat: Only three cornerbacks have been targeted more, and he has still only allowed 274 yards in his coverage.

Like Bosa, Lewis is hurt by playing on defense, particularly when he doesn’t have any game breaking returns to catch your attention. That being said, you won’t find a better cover corner in all of college football, and he is right up there with the other four players listed as one of the best players in the country. Lewis has been targeted 72 times in coverage, which seems foolish for opposing quarterbacks, especially when you consider he has given up just 26 receptions for 274 yards and one touchdown over the course of the year. He’s allowed more than 40 receiving yards in a single game just once all year, and has come away with two interceptions and 14 pass breakups. There was a three-game span against UNLV, BYU and Maryland where he allowed just three receptions for six yards while picking off one pass and breaking up five more.

Those numbers are bonkers. Michigan's inability to generate turnovers has got to be mostly luck when they're getting so many hands on opposition passes. Those translate to INTs at a fairly consistent rate and Michigan is way below par there; meanwhile they've recovered one opposition fumble all year. I can't imagine what their numbers would be like if they had the same level of fortune that Hoke's first team did.

Michigan’s run defense was exposed for the first time this season, but it wasn’t because they were overpowered on the line. No, the Wolverine’s defense looked completely lost trying to maintain gap control against the Hoosier’s stretch plays. Michigan’s defensive line likes to fire off straight upfield at the snap. This works great against downhill runs like inside zone where they had great success Saturday. But versus outside zone firing upfield creates very wide running lanes when one defensive tackle flows down the line of scrimmage and another one doesn’t. The poor discipline made the job extremely difficult on Michigan’s linebackers. Matthew Godin (-5.3) and Joe Bolden (-3.6) were the two that struggled the most.

I'm through the first half-zillion Indiana plays and that is very much on point. Michigan is slanting with a backside blitz a ton and still not getting their guys to the correct gaps way way too often. Michigan quickly adapted to all the stretch plays tactically but the backup DTs were unable to execute, and Hurst suffered quite a bit as well.

Bolden… Bolden is not getting a good UFR number. I do not understand why Ben Gedeon isn't getting way more time.

Scoring is up 7% over the first weekend last season. Pace is up 5% and efficiency is up 2%. It’s not 1975-style basketball, but for at least one weekend we turned the clock back to 1995 when it wasn’t unusual to see a team crack 100 on the daily scoreboard.

Fouls are up slightly, as are threes (with no decrease in shooting percentage). Twos are more accurate. The main caveat I would suggest is that years with rules changes that include "call the game like the rulebook says" often start out with a bunch more fouls and then refs swallow their whistles as the stakes rise. The last attempt to crack down on obstruction of movement petered out by midseason. Hopefully this one sticks, but I'm not getting out my victory epaulettes just yet.

FWIW, the NCAA put out a video about what the rules entail:

It's nice that the official voice of the NCAA is decrying MSU's brand of footsketball, at least. John Gasaway on the new regime:

One paradox or spiritual kinship shared by basketball and baseball alike is that invariably many of the sports’ most consequential “reforms” consist of nothing more than a renewed commitment to enforcing the rules as already written. Screens really do have to be stationary, and bumping a cutter or displacing a player off the block really is a violation. So it is that in the coming days it will be said that it’s precisely this newfound strict constructionist attitude that’s resulted in all these darn fouls that are suddenly being called. Indeed the NCAA itself is already sounding this alarm. In its video the organization channels its inner Clubber Lang and says its prediction is pain: “At times the fans and media will not like the number of fouls being called, but we must stay the course and call the rules as written in the rule book.”

I don’t doubt for a moment that officials will signal their seriousness in November by minting free throws left and right, but it bears repeating that justice can be furthered by a no-call just as it can be by a whistle. Enlarging the charge circle could, one hopes, increase the prevalence of swallowed whistles, while the NCAA’s professed wish to stop rewarding “offense-initiated contact” will be nothing less than a no-call godsend if it comes to pass. I don’t want to see a foul called on Melo Trimble (just to pick a name purely at random), but a no-call the next time he flings himself like a horizontal missile into the chest of the nearest vertical-cylinder-inhabiting defender would most definitely be a just result.

One note from the Elon game: the refs appeared to blow one egregious example of offense-initiated contact when a Fightin' Christian jumped unnaturally into Walton to draw a foul.Otherwise I thought that game was well officiated aside from the usual slate of block/charge calls that nobody can ever figure out.

Is this how you do it? "Not quite." How about now? "Still not really there." Surely now? "For chrissakes can you stop looking like a serial killer experiencing afterglow for like 30 seconds?"

Willie Taggart has had a nice turnaround year at USF. If he were to be let go at any point, Taggart would be very much on Harbaugh's radar to fill hypothetical holes on his staff, but better to see him succeed.

Comments

I used to work in the bread box at Zingermans. One night I looked down at a customers credit card and it said Bo Schembechler. He must have seen my eyes bug out when I realized it was the cards rightful owner. A year or so later the same thing happened with Lloyd Carr. I kick myself every day for not taking those receipts home with me and having 2 Zingermans credit card receipts signed by Bo and Lloyd as the most random UofM/Ann Arbor memorabilia framed on my wall. I know, I know....cool story grandpa.

I represented two serial killers in my former career, one of whom is now on death row in Indiana federal prison. While we know Dantoni is nothing like that, it is amazing how similar some of the facial expressions are.

I realize that is unfair to Dantoni, but I too will now never be able to get the association out of my head.

It looks like social awkwardness, and after the last spiritual allusion to the final 10 seconds in the Big House, my friend and I have now taken to calling him "Scowling Jesus".

Michigan's inability to generate turnovers has got to be mostly luck when they're getting so many hands on opposition passes.

Nope. As I said in HHH, part of Lewis' bargain with the gypsy is that instead of going for the INT with both hands, causing him to phase out of existence, he now focuses on getting a few fingertips from one hand on the ball. You can't rack up picks that way, but that's all you need to tip the ball off-target, and INT attempts tend to get deflected upwards. Long story short, he's embraced a soccer goalie style of coverage -- catch what you can, but bat it away when it doubt, which for a 5'10" corner is damn near everything. The one-handed reach compensates for his lack of height with a little extra extension to break up the pass. The gypsy approves.

It's still rather dumb for opposing QBs to target him since it's such an unproductive exercise (unless you have no other options and a QB that throws on target like MSU), but I don't see any luck in Lewis' technique. If anything, he's removed luck from the equation by sacrificing the chance at a pick for more reliable coverage.

If you're looking for official data on "passes defended with one hand or both", I don't think that's tracked anywhere. Just watch his technique. Most of the PBU's I've seen him make were with one hand. Back when he regularly phased out of reality it's because he'd raise both hands and the ball would fly through.

That said, that might be a good diary for later. While I can post here and there during work while waiting for scripts to complete, unfortunately I won't have any time in the near future to burn any midnight oil on reviewing every Jourdan Lewis PBU, as much fun as that would be.

Henson, man he was good. Effortless long ball and Terrell made every catch. Too bad neither did much in the NFL. If Henson comes back his Sr year and plays football, good chance we might have Brady and Henson still in the league killing it. #Dreaming

I was both impressed with how far and accurate he could throw it, but also how quickly he gets the ball out. He has to have one of the shortest wind ups I've seen and puts a ton of zip on the ball. Yeah, I still think he could have been something special. I'm also glad to have watched him with Terrell and walker. Those two are also busts I am suprised by.

I'm one of the few Michigan fans that will admit I wanted Henson and had no use for Brady in college. Watching those highlights has me really excited again to see what he and the team can accomplish his senior year.

Junior and senior Brady were better than freshman and sophomore Henson, but junior Henson was better than Brady. And I think a senior Henson (especially if Terrell had stuck around) would have been invited to New York.

It's comforting to know that Michigan's struggles with defending the run in the Indiana game stem from a bad scheme as opposed to a massive drop-off with Glasgow out due to an injury. I'm confident that Durkin et al will correct that going forward and put the kids in a position to make plays in the next two weeks.

Coach Harbaugh's tweet about Bo to the MGoSophomore with the comment that we have a fantastic football coach. (She almost literally ran into CoachJim4UM in S Quad the morning after the Staee game and he gave her a big grin. So everything was under control).

Of course WE had a great one when many of us were students, a Glenn E. "Bo" Schembechler.

And when I was a student, Jim Harbaugh was our QB--and classmate of my girlfriend at the time.

It's still so fresh in my mind, it could have been today. dropping my son off at his elementary school, and we always listened to WTKA on the way. I remember Bo sounding so weak when he was asked if he would be all right for the game next day, and he said, "I'll be OK."

instantly I went cold all over, and in the next couple of minutes we were pulling up to the school's circular drive, and the bell rang. Son got out of the car. A brisk November wind was scattering leaves and kids were running inside. Over the airwaves I had heard something that scared the hell out of me but all around me, life was happening. I had turned the radio off, and proceeded to the highway, to work.

Remembered to turn the radio back on, and heard breaking news that Bo had just died.

If you are Indiana football, you are going to lose half your games. It's your destiny.

So which would you rather have? Lose half your games 34-7 at noon on BTN which nobody notices, or lose half your games 48-41 in double OT in prime time and have the entire country talking about the chaos you create?

Everybody knows about Indiana and the car-chase scene and wreck-strewn aftermath that follows it around. Nobody knows Purdue even exists.

If you are killing time until Basketball season, you might as well do it hanging upside down from an airborne '69 SS Camaro hurling down Lombard street.